Valentine "Val" McKee and Earl Basset work as handymen in Perfection, Nevada, an isolated ex-mining settlement in the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Perfection is home to 14 residents, among them general store owner Walter Chang, and survivalist couple Burt and Heather Gummer. A new arrival is Rhonda LeBeck, a graduate student conducting seismology tests. Val and Earl tire of their hand-to-mouth existence and leave for Bixby, the nearest town. They discover another resident, Edgar, dead at the top of an electrical tower, though still holding on to the beams with a .30-30 Winchester rifle. Jim Wallace, the town doctor, determines that Edgar died of dehydration, apparently afraid to climb down. Elsewhere, shepherd Old Fred and his flock are attacked by a force that drags hi